When I'm learning a human language, especially immersed, I find that I can play the Set game twice as well. Proof enough for me.
The Benefits of Failing at French
101–110 of 158 posts
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#102Without realizing it, we think in the language we know[1]. When starting to learn another language, we still think in our native language and translate it to the foreign one.
However, when reaching a higher experience with a second/third language, the thought process gradually changes. My native language is French, but very often I have thoughts "in English", because the idea seems easier to express/understand with the way English works. Sometimes, the words don't exist in French to express the idea I'm thinking, while it exists in English.
I've read somewhere (citation needed) that at some point, one would stop thinking in language and start thinking in concept.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#103This is timely. I'm about 4 weeks into a "let's learn Korean" self-study program. The last time I seriously tried to learn a foreign language was Spanish in high school and it was quite a debacle. But after many years married to a Korean woman, I finally decided I was embarrassed enough not knowing more than a few utility words in Korean to take the plunge. I remember looking into learning Korean about 6 or 7 years a…
Out of curiosity, what are the texts/resources you're getting vocab from? Where do you get shows to watch? Did you pick up on the basics like the alphabet and pronunciation first and study that together? My husband's just like you and beyond knowing words for his favorite foods and some of the lyrics to Gangnam Style, he doesn't know much more. I would like to change that. Plus it'd be nice to practice my rusting Kor…
I began some Korean self-studying and found that koreanclass101 and Talk to Me in Korean (ttmik) have pretty good audio lessons. The rest of the process was trying to get my hands on as much material as possible - practice with native speakers, children's books, dramas, readers, flash cards, etc. Anki is incredible for memorizing a huge number of facts (e.g. words), but can only power one part of the whole experience. Finding material can be hit or miss, so don't be afraid of spending small amounts of money here and there on books, etc. I will say that prepackaged courses like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur will not get one very far.
Just tell him that Korean's not too bad to learn once you already know English, Chinese, and Japanese - that'll really encourage him!
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#104one problem i have with foreign languages is how its taught. a child spends years to just get to 'i hitted the dog' and still mispronounces most of the words and its like 'yay great job. despite the kid having the synapse advantages over an adult.
an adult spends a few months learning an entire language and its like 'what? you have to learn how to spell it correctly, say all the right tenses, pronounce it correctly, etc etc or else you're not learning!'.
i feel like we're forced to focus on so much detail and our minds just quits on us.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#105I challenge any Anglophone without mastery of the French language to say the word, "flourure" (making sure to elongate the Rs) before a group of Francophones without feeling absolutely ridiculous
There are other examples but I find this word (meaning flouride) especially comical as it stumbles out of my mouth at the pharmacy -- as does anyone within hearing distance ;-)
I believe the "th" sound is generally difficult for latins. As a test, if you are Francophone please stand before a mirror and quickly say, "hello, my name is thof thimblefith", making sure to enunciate each "th" clearly. If you can do so you will have mastered a lisp.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity, what are the texts/resources you're getting vocab from? Where do you get shows to watch? Did you pick up on the basics like the alphabet and pronunciation first and study that together? My husband's just like you and beyond knowing words for his favorite foods and some of the lyrics to Gangnam Style, he doesn't know much more. I would like to change that. Plus it'd be nice to practice my rusting Kor…
I learned Hangul years ago from some website. It's impressively easy to learn and makes figuring out pronunciation way easier than writing Korean in a Latin alphabet. There's actually a great list of resources here. http://www.reddit.com/r/korean and more specifically here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/rq3th/the_ultimate_b... Right now I'm using Ankidroid and Anki for Windows and OS X (all free and they sy…
Sorry to push my own side project but it might be useful to you guys.
It's a popup dictionary extension for Chrome and Firefox that is based on an open source K-E dictionary (https://github.com/garfieldnate/kengdic). It still needs a lot of work, but I plan to open source it soon and hopefully allow people to contribute back to and improve the original dictionary as well.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#107The L-R confusion with asian languages' speakers is very strange to me btw.
For example, English has t and th and f, most other languages don't have th and some don't even have f. However it's very rare to see non-native English speakers to swap or merge those sounds. Virtually unseen in writing.
Asian languages' speakers do swap r and l and vice versa in writing too.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#108The L-R confusion with asian languages' speakers is very strange to me btw. For example, English has t and th and f, most other languages don't have th and some don't even have f. However it's very rare to see non-native English speakers to swap or merge those sounds. Virtually unseen in writing. Asian languages' speakers do swap r and l and vice versa in writing too.
Many dialects of English (in both UK and USA) merge these sounds.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#109Great article. Tired of learning stupid front-end JS frameworks and would love to hear your guys' story about failures at other hobbies and not just foreign languages and what insights you gained from it. Me personally, I took up basketball and thought that I could be like LeBron dunking on everybody, then I realized that I was short and Asian and have no leaping ability; then I shifted my goal a little bit to aim to…
You build up your finger strength with practice, and also using your little finger instead of sliding your entire hand over because your pinkie hurts. Pinkie pain is just a stage.
Re: The Benefits of Failing at French
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity, what are the texts/resources you're getting vocab from? Where do you get shows to watch? Did you pick up on the basics like the alphabet and pronunciation first and study that together? My husband's just like you and beyond knowing words for his favorite foods and some of the lyrics to Gangnam Style, he doesn't know much more. I would like to change that. Plus it'd be nice to practice my rusting Kor…
I learned Hangul years ago from some website. It's impressively easy to learn and makes figuring out pronunciation way easier than writing Korean in a Latin alphabet. There's actually a great list of resources here. http://www.reddit.com/r/korean and more specifically here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/rq3th/the_ultimate_b... Right now I'm using Ankidroid and Anki for Windows and OS X (all free and they sy…
Thank you so much for your response!
I don't know how I didn't come across r/Korean while I've been lurking in r/Korea for the last couple weeks (trying to find out more about dual citizenship)... I'll definitely have to check that out. I've been in the middle of creating an Anki deck while studying for the MCAT and I've used it in the past for learning Mandarin and I absolutely love it, just wondered if there were any existing Korean decks you particularly recommend.
Good idea on the youtube videos too. I was thinking straight up kdrama and rewatching some of my favorite Korean movies but it might be too complicated right now for beginning.
I'm surprised to hear Korean is supposed to be hard for English speakers to learn...I don't think fundamentals are that hard. It's really vocab that sucks balls and I feel like I can say that about lots of languages, but I'll never know in person how hard it is so :/